While there has been progress towards achieving the six Education for All (EFA) targets agreed at Dakar in 2000 (see companion summary ‘the good news’), huge gaps remain. Most countries have missed the gender parity goal set for 2005. Progress in tackling adult illiteracy has been painfully slow. Early childhood care and education (ECCE) is largely ignored.

The final chapter of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2008 urges governments, civil society, international agencies and donors to focus on neglected goals and countries lagging behind.

Fifty-eight countries are projected to not achieve universal primary enrolment (UPE) by 2015 – 45 of them will not get there by 2025 without major acceleration. No fewer than 113 countries missed the 2005 target to achieve gender parity in primary and secondary enrolment. On current trends, 86 are at risk of failing to achieve parity by 2025. Even some developed countries – such as Ireland, Luxembourg and New Zealand – may not achieve gender parity at secondary level by 2025.

No country in sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia or the Arab World has achieved universal adult literacy (literacy rates above 97 per cent). Twenty-five countries are at serious risk of not reaching the adult literacy target by 2015. Illiteracy is receiving minimal political attention and remains a global disgrace, keeping one in five adults (one in four women) on the margins of society. With the notable exception of China, most countries are making little progress in reducing the absolute number of adult illiterates.

There are serious concerns about quality. Evidence points to the prevalence of weak pupil performance, insufficient instructional time and high drop-out rates in many countries. Disparities in learning outcomes remain significant to the disadvantage of poor, rural, urban slum, indigenous and minority pupils. Crowded classrooms in need of repair, too few textbooks and insufficient instructional time are widespread. Pupil to teacher ratios are rising in many countries and many casual and untrained teachers are being employed.

More countries need to take the necessary policy measures to provide care and education to children below the age of three. Early childhood care and education programmes generally do not reach the poorest and most disadvantaged children, who stand to gain the most from them.

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report is also concerned that:

• To achieve UPE by 2015 the world will need more than 18 million new primary teachers, compared with its total 2004 stock of 26 million.
• To accommodate higher pupil enrolments and fill places of teachers leaving, notably due to HIV and AIDS, sub-Saharan Africa alone will need to train, and find funds to employ, 3.8 million new primary teachers.
• Gender equality remains elusive: sexual violence, insecure school environments and inadequate sanitation disproportionately affect girls’ self-esteem, participation and retention.
• Textbooks, curricula and teacher attitudes continue to reinforce gender stereotypes.
• Insufficient female teachers are being recruited, especially in areas where gender inequality is a problem.
• Disparities between formal and non-formal schooling continue to widen.

It is imperative to:

• develop approaches to get hard-to-reach children into school, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected states where 37 per cent of the world’s out-of- school children live
• abolish school fees and offer financial support to poorer children
• alleviate the need for child labour and allow for flexible schooling and non-formal equivalent courses for working children
• open schools to disabled, indigenous children and other disadvantaged children
• develop media and publishing policies that promote reading
• address boys’ under-participation and under-achievement in secondary education.

Source(s):
‘The Way Forward’, chapter five in ‘Education For All By 2015. Will We Make It?’ by the EFA Global Monitoring Report Team, UNESCO and Oxford University Press, November 2007 Full document.
Full report Full document.

Funded by: Several bilateral donors and UNESCO

id21 Research Highlight: 19 December 2007

Further Information:
Cynthia Guttman
EFA Global Monitoring Report Team
UNESCO
7, Place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP, France

Tel: +33 (0)1 45 68 2128
Fax: +33 (0)1 45 68 5627
Contact the contributor: efareport@unesco.org 

EFA Global Monitoring Report Team, UNESCO, France

Other related links:
'Education for all by 2015: the good news'

'Are governments and donors honouring EFA financial commitments?'

'Can aid meet Education for All goals?'

'Is the international community getting serious about EFA?'

'Some progress but Education for All can do better'

'Education for all by 2015: how aid can help'